1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods of conditioning biological cells, tissues, and organs to facilitate enhanced electrical and bioelectrical transmission and reception of electrical potentials and currents.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical signals provide useful tools to investigate and affect properties and functioning of biological materials. Electrical signals can be transmitted into biological entities such as cells, tissues, and organs to interrogate or stimulate the electrical properties of these biological entities. Electrical signals can also be naturally produced by biological cells, tissues, and organs in performing their functions within living animals and humans. The emission of bioelectrical signals from cells, tissues, and organs provide useful information about the condition and functioning of these entities. This information is important in the diagnosis of medical illness and conditions. The transmission of electrical signals into cells, tissues, and organs can have therapeutically beneficial effects for various medical ailment and diseases.
Bioelectrical signals such as bioelectrical potentials and bioelectric currents are monitored and recorded using electrodes attached to skin. These signals may be used to diagnose and treat various medical illness and conditions. For example, an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) records bioelectrical activities of the heart. Electroencephalograms (EEG) and evoked-response potentials (ERP) record bioelectrical activities of the brain. An electromyogram (EMG) records the electrical activities of a muscle. In addition, electrical signals can be applied and subsequently monitored to assess the functioning of other organs, for example, stimulation of nerves and measuring the conduction of the stimulus.
Electrical signals may be applied to a patient to treat biological organs; to deliver medication into cells, tissues, and/or organs, and to destroy various natural and foreign biological materials in animals and humans. In addition, electrical signals from human organs may be used for medical diagnosis, as described above, and also may be used to improve the actuation of external machinery such as bionic prostheses and computer-controlled vehicles such as automobiles and airplanes.
The transmission and reception of electrical signals through human skin is hindered by the presence of the skin's outer-most barrier, called the stratum corneum. For example, signal fidelity of bioelectrical potentials and currents measured through skin is degraded by the high impedance of the stratum corneum. Accordingly, the high impedance presents a problem to the ideal transmission and the measurement of bioelectrical signals from human cells, organs, and tissues.
It is well known that the removal of the stratum corneum reduces the high impedance of the skin and allows better transmission and reception of electrical signals into and from human organs. Invasive methods and devices have been devised to better prepare the location of skin where electrodes are placed for making electrical measurements. For example, typical invasive methods require the abrasion of skin with sand paper and brushes, the stripping of skin with tape and toxic chemicals, the removal of stratum corneum by laser or thermal ablation, or the puncturing of skin with needles. The preparation of skin by these methods may be laborious, time consuming, highly variable, hazardous, painful to the subject, and generally inconvenient.